Comments on: online job postings dropped 70,200 in november

By: Rafael

Rafael — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:13:37 +0000

Here’s an interesting quote from NY Times CEO regarding their Q4 2008 online job ad revenue-

“The most painful hit, however, was on the classified front”. Robinson said that combined print and online job ads plummeted 43.5 percent. “Online employment ad revs also fell 35.7 percent in Q4, which were in line with December’s numbers, which saw online recruitment dollar’s fall 36 percent.” – Janet Robinson, CEO New York Times

So NY Times online job ads shrunk 43% in Q4. That’s an enormous downturn but do you really think that in one quarter, the total universe of job postings dropped 43%? Of course not. At most the universe of job listings fell 20% from all stats I have seen. If you have others, please share. I believe certain job sites are seeing a much larger loss in job postings as a direct result of employers abandoning their technology and pricing models in search of less risky/expensive providers. Right now, there are lots of habits changing and new ones forming for both employers and job seekers.

By: Bear

Bear — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:41:09 +0000

The numbers make sense, at least anecdotally. Run a local search on any of the leading boards, ignore the work-at-home scams, and see what the numners tell you.

By: The Hire Sense » Online Job Ads Down

The Hire Sense » Online Job Ads Down — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:09:27 +0000

[...] Recently Cheezhead mentioned that online job ads are down again in November. According to the Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series online job postings declined 70,200 to 4,369,200 in November. Job postings for the September to November period were down 264,000. [...]

By: william fischer

william fischer — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:46:31 +0000

Interesting data. In the UK we are seeing that in November 07 there were about 30k/day new jobs being posted online across the UK and that this has dropped to about 20k/day a 1/3 drop. Our job search engine is now tracking roughly 601k jobs a drop of 300k vs. last year. We think that these numbers are below the replacement rate and that unemployment will continue to rise here.

By: Vanessa Dennis

Vanessa Dennis — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:17:48 +0000

Ari:

Here is how the board generates its data (taken from their web site):

The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series(TM) measures the number of new, first-time online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.
Like The Conference Board’s long running Help-Wanted Advertising Index of print ads (which was published for over 55 years and discontinued in July 2008 but will continue to be available for research), the new online series is not a direct measure of job vacancies. The level of ads in both print and online may change for reasons not related to overall job demand.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:10:36 +0000

I’m confused by this story. Online ad drops where? Monster.com? Idealist? Careerbuilder?

What about the shift from advertisement-generated job boards to organic social networks? For instance, it doesn’t cost anything for a company to post a vacancy on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Do the numbers account for such?